Parentage: The Stevia cultivar ‘LOSTE1517’ is the result of a planned breeding program carried out by the inventor at his greenhouse in Mariahout, the Netherlands. In May of 2013, the inventor performed a controlled cross-pollination of the seed parent, Stevia ‘3662/12’ (not patented), with Stevia ‘3668/12’ (not patented), the pollen parent. In March of 2014, a seedling that exhibited potential commercial value was selected from all other progeny. The seedling was given the reference code “5998/14” and allowed to grow to a mature size, for further evaluation. In the summer of 2014, the candidate was asexually propagated using softwood cuttings to assess the stability of the unique characteristics for which the candidate was originally selected. In April of 2015, a final selection was made and the new cultivar was given the name ‘LOSTE1517’.
Asexual Reproduction: Asexual reproduction of ‘LOSTE1517’, by way of softwood stem cuttings, was first performed in the summer of 2014 at the inventor's greenhouse in Mariahout, the Netherlands and has since been further cloned using meristematic tissue culture propagation. Through five subsequent generations, the unique features of this cultivar have proven to be stable and true to type.